So What Comes Next?

Thursday

Nov 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 7, 2013 at 2:47 PM

So now that Gregg Berhalter has been named the Crew's new coach and sporting director, what comes next?

First, Berhalter has to get to Columbus, and before that he has to get back to Sweden. From there, Berhalter and his family will fly to Ohio sometime this weekend and begin their search for a new home. Crew investor-operator Anthony Precourt will fly into town Monday, and Tuesday Berhalter will be publicly introduced as the head of the team's technical side.

Now comes an evaluation process that will see Berhalter assess the Crew roster as it stands, exercise options on players who fit into the plans going forward and begin the process of acquiring outside talent for next season. According to Precourt, that process has been ongoing in some form for weeks.

So now that Gregg Berhalter has been named the Crew's new coach and sporting director, what comes next?

First, Berhalter has to get to Columbus, and before that he has to get back to Sweden. From there, Berhalter and his family will fly to Ohio sometime this weekend and begin their search for a new home. Crew investor-operator Anthony Precourt will fly into town Monday, and Tuesday Berhalter will be publicly introduced as the head of the team's technical side.

Now comes an evaluation process that will see Berhalter assess the Crew roster as it stands, exercise options on players who fit into the plans going forward and begin the process of acquiring outside talent for next season. According to Precourt, that process has been ongoing in some form for weeks.

"I've been in conversations with Gregg Berhalter for over five, six weeks – with all of our candidates," he said. "He's had time to evaluate. He's been spending a lot of time. He was formally interviewed in mid-September in Columbus. He's had a lot of time to thoroughly analyze our roster. He's been studying our games and doing all sorts of data-driven analysis on our roster, qualitative assessments, talking with other coaches, just getting a feel, talking with Mark McCullers about our roster. We're going to be totally up to curve when it comes to our notification date on Nov. 26."

And what does Berhalter think of the Crew's roster? Without giving away any state secrets, the team's new coach said he sees pieces around which to build. After watching more than 15 Crew games, Berhalter said he is as familiar with the roster as he could be without actually having been the coach.

"I see good pieces," he said. "I see some good quality within the team. I think that the team can be relatively successful in a short period of time because the pieces are there. There's technical players, there's players with speed, there's players with strength. It's a good mix. Of course we're going to look to improve the roster, but I'm pretty pleased with what I see already."

At various points in the teleconference, Berhalter mentioned four players by name: Dominic Oduro and Federico Higuain (when discussing finishing chances on offense) and homegrown players Ben Speas and Matt Lampson (when both names were mentioned as part of the question about the team's youth system).

One player he will not have is Eddie Gaven, who surprised everyone and retired last Thursday. Berhalter said he has not reached out to Gaven to try and convince him to change his mind but that he wishes the midfielder was still on the roster.

"I know him from playing with him on the national team and I respect him," Berhalter said. "I think he had a great game and he's the type of player that I wanted to work with, but if a guy's heart isn't into it anymore you can't force something. He's a good guy. He's been around a while and he knows what he wants at this stage of the game. I wish him all the best. He'll be fine with whatever he does."

Although further roster decisions are obviously forthcoming, Precourt said the decision to cut ties with Matias Sanchez and Aaron Horton was made by former interim coach and technical director Brian Bliss – and that the decision would not have been vetoed by any of the club's finalists for the position.

Before Sanchez and Horton were cut and Gaven retired, Precourt said he was not sure the budget would call for a second designated player. Yesterday, Berhalter did not rule out the possibility.

"In terms of the designated player, we'll look at that situation," he said. "I don't think it's something that's a requirement right now, but we'll certainly look at it. We want to bring in someone that can make an impact. That's what's most important. If it happens to be a designated player, so be it, but we're going to look at a whole bunch of options to come up with the right person."

Yesterday was the final day of practice for the Crew, and players will not be required to be back in Columbus until sometime in January. Berhalter said he will reach out and try to get in touch with each player on the roster either via phone call or email in the coming days.

And as for positions of need, Berhalter was not forthcoming on the details.

"I don't think it would be right of me to start calling out individuals on the team this early in the game," he said. "We're going to look at the whole roster. We're going to evaluate the whole roster up and down and look to improve it. I think that some positions need more improvement but we're obviously going to determine that as we move forward in the next couple of weeks."